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Subject:Re: Items in a Series and Comma Use? From:Sankara R <ss_rajanala -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca>, TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>, Kirk Turner <royj -at- alltel -dot- net> Date:Sat, 28 Jan 2006 15:32:07 -0800 (PST)
Luckily for most of us, the company style guide
says: use a serial comma (or don't) and we go
with that. The U.S. govt printing office is one
such body that mandates the use of it, I learnt
from Strunk.
Omitting the comma before the last item (before
'and') had, according to one of my teachers, this
justification: that comma was shorthand for
'and'.
This and that and the other
This, that and the other
Thus, it was pointed out - the comma before and
is superlative.
Or, do I mean superfluous?
But then, if the style book says put a comma, so
we do.
He who pays the piper calls the commas.
Thanks and regards,
Sankara S Rajanala
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